Syria shuts U.S. school, center after air attack

Damascus calls strike near Iraq border a 'barbaric' act of terrorism

ALBERT AJI, Associated Press

Published
5:30 am CDT, Wednesday, October 29, 2008

DAMASCUS, SYRIA — The Syrian government ordered an American school and a U.S. cultural center in Damascus closed Tuesday in response to a deadly U.S. attack on a village near the Iraq border, the state-run news agency said.

U.S. officials said the raid killed Abu Ghadiyah, a top operative of al-Qaida in Iraq who intelligence suggested was about to conduct an attack in Iraq.

"The trip wire was knowing an attack was imminent, and also being able to pinpoint his location," a senior U.S. official told The Associated Press.

Syria and the Iraqi government criticized the raid.

Outside the Damascus Community School, known popularly as the "American School," in the upscale Maliki neighborhood, activities seemed normal. Drivers waited outside the building to pick up the foreign, mostly Arab pupils as they left for home shortly before sunset.

Several students and a foreign teacher said they were not aware of the closure order and declined to comment further. There was no sign of extraordinary security, with the normal contingent of three Syrian policemen standing guard near the gate.

Monana Sabban, the mother of a first-grader, said students were told only that the school staff would meet later and inform parents of any developments.

Bousher Abedeen, a Syrian-American father of two students, said parents had not been told to keep their children at home today.

A Syrian employee at the cultural center said he expected staff to show up today because they had not been told otherwise.

The school and the cultural center, which are linked to the U.S. Embassy, cater to the small American community in the Syrian capital and other foreign residents. The center is about 165 feet from the embassy and has a media and press section, a cultural section and a library.

Syria's government was reacting to an attack by U.S. troops in four helicopters that killed eight people Sunday in a building inside Syria, near the border with Iraq. The Cabinet condemned the raid Tuesday, calling it a "barbaric" act.

"This brutal crime represents a climax of state terrorism exercised by the U.S. administration," said a Cabinet statement. It accused the United States of violating the U.N. charter, international law and international legitimacy, according to SANA.

In Washington, State Department spokesman Robert Wood said Syria has taken "steps in the right direction" about stopping foreign fighters from moving into Iraq, but there is more they must do.

Also Tuesday, Syria demanded the U.N. Security Council condemn the attack and take action against the U.S.